Get more from your shiny box of joy: Taking Apple TVs to the next level

XBMC 11.0 “Eden” is finally here. That’s right Apple TV users: we finally have a stable release for both Apple TV 1 and the Apple TV 2. There are no more nightlies, betas, or release candidates! If you happen to be one of the new 1080pApple TV 3 owners out there, feel reassured that when your device is jailbroken this release will also work for you.

A new beta of AirParrot, an app that streams your Mac’s display to your Apple TV 2 or Apple TV 3 over AirPlay, is now available. AirParrot 1.3 beta5 comes with 1080p support for the third-generation Apple TV, individual app mirroring, “greatly” improved mirror speed and some stability fixes. The new version uses an almost completely rewritten method for mirroring and encoding frames. This results in lower CPU usage and faster frame rates.

At the exact same size as the Apple TV 2… the Apple TV 3 adds, most notably, the ability to play true 1080p content. Like the previous Apple TV, the backside features the same, standard, ports as its predecessor:

In the past day or so the new iPad, or the iPad 3, has been jailbroken multiple times using numerous exploits… yet according to MuscleNerd the new 1080pApple TV 3 is not going to be as easy. The famous iOS hacker tweeted that “Apple’s least expensive iOS device (new AppleTV3,1) will likely be the most secure of the bunch”. That’s mainly because geohot’s limera1n bootrom exploit, used to jailbreak Apple TV 2, doesn’t apply to ATV3.

Hot on the heels of Apple’s latest announcement introducing the iPad 3 to the world people quickly forgot all about the new Apple HDTV hype. Prior to the announcement, if you’ll recall, there was great speculation as to what Apple would be announcing regarding its Apple TV line. It had been speculated that what Steve Jobs once mentioned as a hobby of Apple’s would soon become one of its next “big things”. Needless to say, we were all more than a little disappointed to learn that they not only weren’t releasing a new HDTV, but they were merely rolling out a “newish” Apple TV 3 packed into the same little black box.

AirServer, an advanced AirPlay/AirTunes receiver that lets you seamlessly stream audio, videos, photos, and photo slideshows to your Mac or iOS device, has been updated to version 4.2. The new AirServer, optimized for the iPad 3, comes with improved frame rate (70+ FPS) and is said to provide no lags: according to the developers, “you can now actually play a game while looking at the big screen”.